Boy it's{?} hard to blog when you have a past story. To understand what I say you would probably have to read earlier posts. But here goes. Emilys' father took me to a doctor friend of his for an exam today. The doctor got angry at the scars. He would not let me call them whippings. He said beatings. There is a little damage but not that much, he says I need a couple of more tests just to be sure. I will be alright.
I want to say a few words about touching. They say babys like to be touched. I am no baby, but I love to be touched. Not in a romantic way, but that is ok too. But to be touched to show someone cares for you. I am going to call it the reasurance touch. When my feet were damaged in an accident, the first night a priest and Alice had to change my clothes because I was wet with swet. It was very unusual. I was not the least bit embarassed, because they did it to help me. When the priest at church puts his hand on my head and says Frank God loves you I feel care. When Alice or Jack pull my bare feet to wake me in the morning that makes me feel they care for me. Even when Emily runs her hand over my short hair I take it as a sign she cares for me. This may not seem unusual to you, but it is to me. When I was hurt Alice must have fixed my t-shirt and pajama pants 20 times. It never embarassed me. I am probably not getting this point across but touching someone is not bad. It can show you care and give you assurance. Frank
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Frank,
ReplyDeleteYou are too right. Our mothers group had a speaker come and talk to us about relationships, and one of the things she mentioned was the importance of touch. She said that babies need a minimum of 100 touches per day, an elementary-middle school child 50-75, and adults need minimum 25 touches per day. She doesn't mean romantic touches either, necessarily, just a pat on the shoulder, or squeeze of the hand, that type of thing. If you didn't get the touches you needed when you were younger, then I bet that your need for touch is much greater than that of someone who did get enough touch. Makes sense to me anyway! :)
I was given a CD for Christmas, and one of the songs on it makes me think of you: it's called "Right Moves" by Josh Ritter, and it makes me think of you and how you're getting together with Emily. It's a nice song, nothing icky, in case you're worried! I bet it's on Youtube, and you could listen and see if you agree with me... Happy New Year!
Peace,
Caitilin
Caitilin. Thanks for your response and your understanding of touching. I know at my age it might sound silly. But I do love to be touched, it shows the person cares for me. Your comments are a touch in a way. To me they show you care. I will look for the song. Thanks. Frank
ReplyDeleteFrank,
ReplyDeleteI'm going to respond to things you said in different places, but I'm going to put it all here for now.
I'm glad you've decided to confess to your priest. I think it will help you.
I'm also glad that Emily's father likes you. It's great that he's showing he cares by taking you to his doctor friend to make sure you are ok. And he doesn't have a problem with you going out with Emily – yay!
Some notes about blogging in general. A lot of religious blogs are technical, yep. Most people get bored by or don't understand the technical stuff, so the people that want to talk about it start writing blogs, and then other people who want to talk about it start leaving comments on their blogs. :) If you're interested in talking about something that not very many people are interested in, the Internet is a good place to find those other people.
And your grade-A papers showed that you are better at writing than you realized, so don't tell people your blogs are going to be poorly written. :)
Another thing about blogs is that every blog that has something personal about it will have a past story. If you're going to write something that doesn't make any sense unless you have read earlier posts, that's ok; that's just how blogs work.
Your words about touching are good. It reminds me of a book I read called The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. He says there are five ways that people communicate their love for each other, and most people will have one “love language” which makes them feel most loved (whether that love is part of a couple relationship, a parent-child relationship, or anything else). He labels the five types: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. He would say, based on your post, that Physical Touch is your primary love language. The other things might make you feel loved, too, but it sounds like being touched makes you feel the most loved.
Oh, and you haven't imposed on my time. The last few days I've been mostly reading our new Harry Potter books. Oh, and one more thing. You used the contraction “it's” just right. :)
God bless,
Anna
I'm(?) really glad you understand about touching. I was beginning to think I was some kind of creep. Also it is making me feel not to be asahmed of my body like I use to after my wild times. I am modest but I do not feel guilt when some one sees me without everything on. I used to. Emily and I are getting along great.
ReplyDeleteThe doctor said I need a little surgery to be sure I could be a family man in the future. Some times the belt missed and hit me where it is not supposed to. Please keep in contact, I need you guys and your prayer touches. Maybe(?) I'll(?) do a new post tomorrow.Anna you saying I did not look like a thug was very good!! Getting close to Easter. I need a saint name, any suggestions. Frank
Dear Frank,
ReplyDeleteI don't have any specific advice for the name of your patron saint, although I think that St. Augustine might be significant to you if you read about him; but I did look and find this site that gives the names of many saints and a very short bio-sketch:
http://wordbytes.org/saints/names.htm
you might find one you like there. I am sorry that I don't know how to link in blogger, so you will need to copy and paste the address. Happy hunting!
Peace,
Caitilin
Thanks Caitilin. I like your saint suggestion. I looked him up and his younger life sounds like mine. I heard the song. It was very good and like me I HOPE. My not mentionable surgery is next week. Pray for me.
ReplyDeleteFrank,
ReplyDeleteI'll pray for your surgery.
"Maybe" was right; so was "I'll". :) You're getting along just fine with those contractions.
My suggestion for a saint name would be St. John Bosco. You can read a little bit about him here. One of the things that makes me think he might be appropriate for you is that he rejected corporal punishments; he said, "Not with blows, but with charity and gentleness must you draw these friends to the path of virtue."
Plus you posted before about maybe wanting to help some high school guys, and St. Bosco helped a lot of boys.
Also, this quote reminded me of you: "But John Bosco saw that even the worse of these boys, the filthiest, the most hardened thief was still God's child and had something of worth in him, even if it was really hard to see." Maybe if he had been there when the nurse called you dirty, St. Don Bosco would have reacted the same way as Jack did, eh? You needed people to see that you were still God's child, of worth; it seems appropriate for you to pick a saint who was good at seeing that in others.
However, Augustine is a great saint, too, so feel free to go with that if you prefer.
God bless,
Anna
Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteDo you know any HTML tags? I'll explain how to put a link in a blogger comment, just in case you want to know. :) (I like explaining things ... if you don't want to know, feel free to just ignore this.)
HTML tags are how you make text look different. There is always a beginning tag and an ending tag. Tags are marked by < and >. So < b > is the beginning tag for making something look bold, and < /b > is the ending tag. (I put in spaces so that you will be able to see what it looks like. Take out the spaces if you want something to show up right.)
Some examples. First I write how it looks like, except I put spaces in the tags so it will show up. Then I will show what it looks like when you write the same thing without the spaces.
< b > This text will be bold. < b >
This text will be bold.
< i > This text will be in italics. < /i >
This text will be in italics.
Now, to do a link, you use the "a" tag. It starts with "< a" (without the space) but then before you put the ">" you put a space, and then you put "href=" and then you put in the URL that you want it to link to, and then follow that with ">". Write whatever text you want to show up, and finish it with the ending tag, < /a >.
So, with the one you did before, you could go like this:
< a href=http://wordbytes.org/saints/names.htm> Saints Names < /a>
and it would look like this:
Saints Names
End of lesson. :) Feel free to ask questions if you want to.
God bless,
Anna
Oh, and Frank, tell Jack that if he thinks the quotes I put up about the Church's teachings on sex were just babble, then he really should read the whole chapter of the U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults that I was quoting from. Since he seems to enjoy relatively obscure theological discussions, he might even read what it's based on, the Theology of the Body, if he hasn't given that a try.
ReplyDeleteGod bless,
Anna